Just so everyone knows, PS4 folks aren't going to be left out in the cold when it comes to racers at launch.Driveclub is looking pretty good. Also, a slightly stripped down version will come with PSPlus.

I've wanted to "get" racing games ever since the original Gran Turismo. Unfortunately, they're just not for me. Still, as a PS Plus member, I'm looking to have a little free eye candy to put the new console through its laps so to speak.

This game got panned at E3, so I had mostly dismissed it. Turns out they've made enormous progress since then, and the recent videos from GamesCom are very impressive indeed. I find myself really looking forward to trying this game now.

These are Facebook videos, so the quality is limited. Higher quality videos on different services are supposed to be released soon, but for now this is all we've got:

In particular, pay attention to the lighting and shading on the dashboard. You'll even see shadows from individual branches on trees. The game features a full day/night cycle (with cool stuff like clouds casting actual shadows across the terrain), and it's reflected everywhere. You could stop your car and watch the day pass by if you wanted to.

Yeah, there's quite a bit of surprise coming out of various news and forum sites about how good Driveclub looks. I'm honestly surprised as well even though I don't play driving games, since everything I saw wasn't that impressive. Glad Sony fronted some money to create a new driving series that actually gets stuff done on time and might have interesting gameplay for more casual driving game fans. Gran Turismo is in such a weird state, I really don't know how the GT studio stays afloat with such poor efficiency.

The above mentioned videos are now being released in high-quality downloadable 1080p 30fps files here. If you want an uncompromised view of what the Gamescom build looked like, this is your best chance. The difference caused by the 1080p upgrade is tremendous, so I recommend downloading even if you've seen the videos before. Don't use the streaming version, you have to download to get the high-quality version. At the time of writing, two of the four videos have been released, with two more coming later today.

You'll see a lot of jaggies in the video since there was no antialiasing in the Gamescom build. The developers have since implemented AA, so the jaggies are gone in the latest build. They'll be releasing more videos as we get closer to release to show the graphical improvements they claim to be continually making.

The Gamescom build runs at 30 fps. The devs say they are aiming for 60 fps with the release build, but that doesn't mean they'll make it.

Has one of the PlayStation 4's big launch exclusives has been pushed back to next year? Rumors are swirling that DriveClub has been delayed to 2014, but Sony won't comment on the matter.P

A website called The Same Coin sparked the rumor earlier today, claiming they'd heard from "an anonymous source" that Sony's big racing game, originally slated for release alongside the PS4 on November 15, has been bumped to next spring. "Treat this as 100% rumour for now," they wrote. "Hopefully it will turn out to be false."

While I hadn't heard of this website before today, a person familiar with goings-on at Sony told me this afternoon that the report is true.

To add some fuel to this rumor fire, today in San Francisco, Sony is holding an event to show off their PS4 games. Although DriveClub was originally part of the lineup, a Sony rep told me this afternoon that it has been removed due to a "scheduling conflict."

When I asked if the game has been delayed, the Sony rep said they don't comment on rumors and speculation.

I imagine they'll be working to make the launch up until the last possible minute.

It's equally possible that they've decided to delay the game days ago and that Sony is trying to make a last-minute deal with another studio so that they'll have something to replace it with on PS+ the first month. They're unlikely to want to hand out this kind of bad news without having something to sugar it with.

I imagine they'll be working to make the launch up until the last possible minute.

It's equally possible that they've decided to delay the game days ago and that Sony is trying to make a last-minute deal with another studio so that they'll have something to replace it with on PS+ the first month. They're unlikely to want to hand out this kind of bad news without having something to sugar it with.

Sucks regardless.

I doubt they'll get any third party takers at this point. My guess is if they need to replace it it will have to be with a Sony title. Which leaves Knack or Killzone. My guess is Knack.

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" And they are a strong and frightening force, impervious to, and immunized against, the feeble lance of mere reason." Isaac Asimov

60 would be best but I've played racers at 30fps and not had a problem. Think most of the Forza games ran at that and I was ok with it.

Forza are 60, they make a huge deal about it being 60 as well.

It's 60 but they are making some tradeoffs to get there especially in regards to lighting and shadows. Now is it worth those to get a solid 60, for the type of game Turn 10 is making, probably, as I think most racers would prefer 60 FPS over having fully realtime lighting and shadows and it's questionable how many people even notice the difference in lighting engines.

60 would be best but I've played racers at 30fps and not had a problem. Think most of the Forza games ran at that and I was ok with it.

Forza are 60, they make a huge deal about it being 60 as well.

It's 60 but they are making some tradeoffs to get there especially in regards to lighting and shadows. Now is it worth those to get a solid 60, for the type of game Turn 10 is making, probably, as I think most racers would prefer 60 FPS over having fully realtime lighting and shadows and it's questionable how many people even notice the difference in lighting engines.

I would normally agree with you, but Driveclub uses its lighting engine to change the time of day as you drive. There was a video of this earlier in this thread, where you're driving a sundown as it gradually turns into night. This is something anyone will be able to notice, and it affects gameplay as well. You can go from hardly being able to see because of glare from the sun when driving in a particular direction, to clear weather with good visibility, to darkness that you have to use your car's lights to penetrate.

60 would be best but I've played racers at 30fps and not had a problem. Think most of the Forza games ran at that and I was ok with it.

Forza are 60, they make a huge deal about it being 60 as well.

It's 60 but they are making some tradeoffs to get there especially in regards to lighting and shadows. Now is it worth those to get a solid 60, for the type of game Turn 10 is making, probably, as I think most racers would prefer 60 FPS over having fully realtime lighting and shadows and it's questionable how many people even notice the difference in lighting engines.

I would normally agree with you, but Driveclub uses its lighting engine to change the time of day as you drive. There was a video of this earlier in this thread, where you're driving a sundown as it gradually turns into night. This is something anyone will be able to notice, and it affects gameplay as well. You can go from hardly being able to see because of glare from the sun when driving in a particular direction, to clear weather with good visibility, to darkness that you have to use your car's lights to penetrate.

I am trying to understand the point you're making... that they have a form of dynamic light for sunsets/sunrises? That one checkbox doesn't mean that any games with that transition are using the same lighting engine (TDU2 had that effect too, for instance).

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They've started teasing us with more videos again, this time 10 second long ones to wet our appetites for a full race to be released very soon. The most pleasant surprise for me is that they've got tracks set in Norway, which I think is an excellent place for races considering our forest and mountain roads. One of the videos shows a race taking place far up in the mountains, and it looks great. There's been several graphical improvements since the last time we saw the game, most notably with shadows, AA and motion blur. The motion blur alone has the biggest impact for me personally.

Really looking forward to Driveclub especially since PS+ gets a free version to try out, but I hope there's a new Dirt game coming. I loved the off road Rally racing of those games. The big dirt flinging slides and high jumps were so much fun.

Beautiful day/night cycle. In comparison, Forza seems almost hardcoded to have the sun always right above the horizon in a way that makes it shine directly towards your eyes at all times to produce fancy lens flare. I didn't even notice until someone told me, but try to find screenshots from that game without lens flare and the sun directly in front of the camera.

My point is, being able to drive a track at different (or even dynamically changing) times of day will dramatically affect the experience.

Forza Horizon already did the day/night cycle thing in a larger open-world environment, for what it's worth. Not to discount this game, but it won't be out for 6 months and they'll have to do more than animated gifs to convince me that the driving is actually good.